The Time of Change
by Sillvog
Summary: Yuuri has had enough, it's time he took a stand to free them both. The only problem is it's going to hurt, he just didn't know how much he was going to be the one hurt in the end. Conrad/Yuuri and a few one-sided or implied.
1. Chapter 1

Well, it looks like I'm starting another Con/Yuu rather than finishing the ones I already have going right now. You have littlestkitten to thank for this seeing as it was inspired by the fic 'You Each Time'. I've never done angst before and I don't even tend to read them so we'll have to see how this turns out. I have the feeling this might turn into something exceedingly long in the end if people like it.

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It was a gorgeous day in Shin Makoku. The sun was shining with delicate looking small clouds dotting the blue expanse of sky like small islands set adrift in the open sea. Only a few of the bad omen birds were giving out their unusual cry and Yuuri could even spot a kohi flying around one of the tall towers that adorned Blood Pledge Castle as he looked up from where he lay down in the lush green grass next to the flowers of Cheri's garden.

'_Today's the day' _thought the anxious young maou. Closing his obsidian eyes he took a deep breath, catching the scents of the world around him, most noticeably the flowers of the garden. As he was opening his eyes he turned his head to the left to come face to face with a single blue flower. _'Conrad Stands Upon the Earth' _Yuuri amusingly recalled. With taking in one more, albeit slightly shaking, breath he hoped that he too would still be standing upon the earth rather than the afterlife when the day was done and over. He slowly and almost grudgingly sat up from his prone position off the ground. As he came to fully stand up he looked forward to the imposing castle with a small and somewhat remorseful smile passing over his face. He tuned once more to the blue flower and softly whispered "Wish me luck".

--

A flash of white and silver could be seen running through the castle grounds soaking anyone that had the misfortune of being in its path with salt water as it cried out and partially deafened them in its passing. The call of 'Heika' could be heard all the way across the castle grounds to even the stables, much to the chagrin of many. Gwendal in his office sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as more wrinkles seemed to take residence on his brow. Conrad stood across from him on the other side of the large desk with a small contented smile on his face knowing just what was about to be asked of him. Gunter had been crying out for nearly an hour now in his search for the maou. With the thought of the missing maou on his mind he started to wonder.

Yuuri had been oddly tolerant of the man's over affectionate nature and exceedingly compliant when it came to the paper work he so hated to do for about the past month or so. No one knew why, but no one was willing to question it in fear that it might stop. Conrad had thought to bring it up in conversation with the boy, but waited to see what would happen. Yuuri had had an odd look to his face for the first week or so, but just as he was about to ask him if something was wrong, the next day those dark black eyes had had such a look of determination on them that he held his tongue. It didn't help that the smile he gave him after that had been… Conrad didn't have a word for it. It was a look that he had never seen on the boy's face before. It was like a mixture of several different emotions had been warring on his face to be dominant.

Conrad was brought out of his thoughts as Gwendal finally spoke for the first time since summoning him to his office. "Conrad, go find His Majesty and do something about that wailing" Gwendal sighed in exasperation. No doubt in his mind a migraine was about to present itself if the noise didn't stop soon. Conrad with a pitying smile for his older brother left to go do just that.

-

Yuuri had thought about this long and hard. He couldn't postpone this any longer than he already had. If he did, this would only end up hurting more than he knew it already was going to. He had hoped that it would go away on its own, but it had stubbornly remained. He really didn't want to hurt him, and didn't want to be hurt either, but is still had to be done. If he let this continue or tried to pretend nothing was wrong till the every end, he would be doing them both a disservice. It wasn't fair to either of them he thought, but the other might not see it that way though. He almost felt selfish for what he was about to do, but he knew that if he tried to ignore this problem it might hurt the other more than him in the long run. He cared about him and knew he deserved better than what he was getting. All he could do now was hope that although he could guess this would end in tears, it didn't end with his blood on the floor as well.

-

Conrad had just walked by the garden to see Yuuri get up from the grass and just as he was about to call out to him, yet again the expression on the boy's face stopped him. He didn't quite like the smile on his face this time. He was able to recognize that whatever was on Yuuri's mind this time, it wasn't a happy thing. It was a look of resignation paired with sorrow. But his eyes still held that fierce determination, the same determination he had seen in them almost a month ago. He decided that whatever it was that Yuuri was about to do, he had fully prepared himself to do it. The naïve boy that had first come to their world was slowly growing up. Albeit he was still naïve in many things, he was never unjustly cruel or judgmental in anything he did. Conrad thought it best to go calm Gunter down first, and let Yuuri do whatever it was that he set out to do. Yozak was watching the boy from one of the branches in a tree overshadowing the garden and he shared a meaningful look with the spy. Yozak would make sure that Yuuri didn't do anything too dangerous, and with that reassuring thought he set out to find Gunter.

-

Yuuri audibly gulped as he stood outside his own bedroom door. He had had barely touched his lunch due from the nervous anxiety that he was experiencing. He had already made the preparations for this. He had sent Greta with Cheri on one of her 'searching for love' cruises and had already talked to the ex-maou about what he was going to do. After listening to his reasons and fears, she had shown him support in his decision. _"Everyone deserves happiness. You're trying to do what's best for the both of you, I can see that. And I think, in time, he will also."_She had said this in such a motherly fashion that he found he no longer felt as guilty as before, but the feeling still lingered. With a glance in both directions down the hall to make sure no one was watching as he put his hand on the door._ 'It's now or never'_ he thought as he marshaled up his failing courage and opened the door.

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This was harder than I thought it would be. I didn't even get to the first main point of the story, let alone much Con/Yuu. I suddenly feel like I understand why angst fics are so long now. Well, if you liked it or have any comments about it, even misspellings and such, feel free to leave a review.


	2. Chapter 2

I didn't think I would get another chapter out so soon, hope it doesn't sound rushed or anything. Other than this,trying to update the other stories and that I just put a poll on my profile, nothing much new. Well, hope you enjoy!

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As Yuuri stepped into his room and closed the door he slowly looked up. "Conrad?" was the questioned greeting the boy gave to the soldier that was standing in his room not more than five feet away from him. Conrad could tell something was bothering Yuuri a great deal at the soft sound of his voice, but decided to reply as he normally did.

"Yes Heika?" Conrad calmly questioned back, but was surprised and disturbed at the reaction he got. He saw Yuuri visibly flinch at the title. Normally the boy would reprimand him for using his title rather than his name, but not this time. Yuuri had looked back down to the side and at the stone floor after that and hadn't yet looked back up. He gave him a moment, but the boy didn't look like he was going to say anything.

"Conrad, why are you here?" The question was so softly spoken that even the trained soldier had problems hearing it. As he was about to explain that he was here with Gunter only minutes before to try and calm the adviser down, he was given a rather unpleasant shock. He had stepped forward to place a comforting hand on Yuuri's shoulder only to watch as Yuuri stepped back and away from him once in response to his approach.

Conrad could swear he felt his heart clench in his chest. He didn't know what he had done to the young maou, but he dearly wanted to fix whatever was wrong. And he knew for certain now that something was horribly wrong. "Excuse me." Yuuri turned and now had his hand on the door handle and looked like he was about to leave, that or run away from him. Conrad didn't like that thought and just as Yuuri had his back fully turned to the solider and was opening the door he quickly closed the gap between them and firmly but gently placed the full weight of his hand on the boy's shoulder. He could feel the muscles under his hand tense at the action.

"I'm sorry" was the only reply he got from the young maou as he shook off the soldiers hand and sped walked through the open door and down the empty hall away from him. Conrad was speechless as Yuuri's hurried pace echoed in the stone hall. Yuuri had never just run away from him before, not even when he was working for Big Cimaron. His heart may have clenched before when Yuuri had stepped back, but at the boy's almost flat out running, it now felt like it was in a vice.

"Yozak, I think we need to have a talk" was Conrad's comment to a seemingly empty hall. Not a moment later the spy stepped out of the shadows and gave his captain a serious faced nod. He had seen the expression the boyo had as he bolted down the hall. He had also heard the slight hurt hidden in his best friend's voice. The spy had a fairly good idea of what was going on, but he didn't want to say anything until he had something more concrete to prove it. Ever since he had been assigned to watch the boyo when he had started to act strange, he had started to notice a couple of things. If what Yuuri was doing was what he thought he was doing, Yozak wanted to make sure no one interfered, which the captain was almost certain to do. But by the look on Conrad's face, he was going to have to spill the beans. He hoped he could buy enough time for the kid to get it right this time.

---

Yuuri felt like a wretch. Not only had he messed up, he had just flat out ditched Conrad! He knew the man was worried about him, but there wasn't anything he could do about it yet. He had to get this over with and soon. He sighed and nearly gagged at the nauseating smell of the corridor he had just taken. His eyes started to water against his will as he continued on deeper down the hall and toward his destination.

Yuuri didn't try to take in a calming breath this time as he opened the door. He feared that if he did the noxious spelling paint would get to what little was currently in his stomach. As he entered the room he saw Wolfram at the easel painting on a large canvass sitting by the only open window in the room. The blond prince looked up at the intrusion and blinked.

"You're late!" was the resounding indignant cry. "Wimp, you should have been here fifteen minutes ago!" Wolfram took a breath of air facing the open window and turned back to Yuuri who was now sitting on a stool in the middle of the room. He continued to berate his tardy fiancé."I, unlike you, am not a slacker and don't have time to waste sitting around and doing nothing." With a 'humph' he turned from glaring at Yuuri to the blank canvass and started to paint.

No more than three minutes had passed before Yuuri decided to finally broach the subject to Wolfram about what had been plaguing him for over a month now. "Wolf, there's something I think we need to talk about." The blond stopped his artistry and looked up at his fiancé. "And what's that?" came the slightly annoyed voice from behind the canvass. Wolfram had just been trying to get the maou's mouth right when said subject had moved his.

"I've been thinking about this for a long time now, and I've finally come to a conclusion." Yuuri was looking straight at Wolfram now and had a slightly pained, though determined expression on his face.

"About what?" Wolfram was starting to get seriously annoyed at the continued interruption of his work. If Yuuri didn't stop changing his expressions like this he would never get the portrait done.

"I think it's time we end our engagement."


End file.
